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When I was a teenager I had no problem with dropping $50 dollars on 1 bottle of hairspray. Now that I am married, and a mother beauty on a budget is more important than ever!

If you have flat hair, like me, I am sure you have tried the popular, hair volumizing Bumble and Bumble Powder. You sprinkle a tiny bit of the powder onto the roots of your hair and massage it in. The powder provides a lightweight texture and separation. It gives a soft matte effect with natural movement to your hair. The silica powder and film formers provides for a dry light hold.

Bumble and Bumble powder rings in right around $45 dollars (depending on where you buy it from). This powder has always been a staple in my beauty box, but at $45 dollars a bottle it really adds up! So, I thought I would give Not Your Mother’sbrand a try. At $3 a bottle it was worth a shot! I just picked it up in the hair isle of my local Wal-Mart, I didn’t have to make a special trip to the beauty store. That was another plus!

I tried it the minute I got home from the store and was blown away! It worked, and it worked really well! I didn’t even notice a difference between the Bumble and Bumble brand and the Not Your Mother’s brand!

Don’t be fooled by how empty and light the bottle feels. A little goes a long way, but at $3 dollars a bottle you can afford to use a lot! Overall, I recommend it and think it is the best $40 I have ever saved! I know my husband will appreciate it too!

Regardless of which show you attend, Cirque du Soleil is definitively a must see. Read on to get a feel for why we say this.

We have been fans of the Cirque du Soleil for quite some time. We not only enjoy the performances, but keep the memories alive until the next show we can attend via their amazing music and soundtracks. This year, we were incredibly fortunate to be invited to their show TOTEM. The shortage of words to describe this amazing production has been overwhelming. Entertaining, provocative, intellectual, physical, educational, symbolic, engaging, beautiful, surprising, innovative, heart-stirring. You have to experience it. Written and directed by Robert Lepage, TOTEM traces the fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly. Inspired by many founding myths, TOTEM illustrates, through a visual and acrobatic language, the evolutionary progress of species. Somewhere between science and legend TOTEM explores the ties that bind Man to other species, his dreams and his infinite potential. It was for us the reflection and relationships between our origins and who we are today in a dynamic and fabulously artistic tale. The performance begins with several of the key characters mingling and interacting with the audience. While we don’t want to give it out for those of you yet to go, we still have to give your some of our poignant moments. It all starts on a stage that features the giant skeleton of a turtle, the symbol of origin for many ancient civilizations. Center stage comes a dark figure that become an luminescent entity that descends from the skies to bring life and accompanies the show throughout. We loved this concept as it allows for each member in the audience to make their own interpretations. At intermission we conversed with fellow-in-awe patrons like us, and while one viewed it as God, another translated the image into the big bag. Someone said it was a visitor from another planet planting its species seed….

credit Goon Production

The explosion of color is present the entire time, fantastic and original acrobatics are performed with perfect accuracy and with a passion I have never seen from a performer. Everyone seems truly dedicated to their moment on stage and devoted to giving the best they can. Native American music, actors and symbolism gave it an amplified respect for nature and deep tradition. One of the most sensual and dramatic acts was that of a couple on roller skates spinning on a two meter diameter drum. Seriously touching and breathtaking! The imagery to set the mood change on stage via video is not only impressive but graphically of amazing quality delivering on cue the right setting. There is no doubt that technological boundaries are being pushed to the limits with the different projections on stage that easily transport you from a field of wheat to a lake or to a beach. The eclectic mix of performers and acts truly felt like a representation of the world, our different cultures or preferences. We went backstage to more wow moments. The first thing that caught our attention was the dedication of the performers. The show had ended and most were at the gym, working hard! True they were warm and were taking advantage of this, but still it made an impression.
We were able to see the costumes (all made in Montreal) and talk about attention to detail! Yet more remarkable is how heavy these costumes are. From stage they look like a second skin. Here are some facts we took away from our backstage tour: -The cast of TOTEM comprises 53 artists from 18 countries— • There are 120 touring employees with 50 official accompanying members (spouses and family). So a total of 170 on the road! • A total of 23 children are on tour between the ages of 6 months and 17 years old. Currently, the youngest tour member is 6 months and the eldest is 61! • One of the performers is a Cirque du Soleil baby: born, raised and now working on tour! • Quebec curriculum is followed at school • The kitchen employs one touring kitchen manager and three touring cooks.

We could really go on and on and on about our experience and how utterly captivating it is. Nevertheless, we prefer to encourage you to experience it for yourself. You will not forget this fabulous experience easily.

This is by far my favorite app on my iPhone. If you haven’t checked it out – please do. Your life will never be the same again.

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Groovebook is a FREE app that lets you choose up to 100 photos from your camera roll into a beautiful 4.5″ x 6.5″ photobook for FREE and mails it to you monthly.

Your photos are printed on glossy photo paper and perforated for easy removal. That means you can share, frame, decorate, scrapbook and more. All this for FREE and just $2.99 each month for shipping and processing!

You will receive the first book shortly after ordering. Subsequent books have a deadline of the first of the month and they are printed/mailed around the 15th of the month.

I already received my first Groovebook and immediately gave it away as a Mother’s Day gift to my Mother in Law. It is definitely gift worthy! You only pay $2.99 for shipping and processing. That is far less than you pay even for 100 4×6 prints – and these are bound in a book. How often do you take those photos with your phone and never do anything with them? Now you can quickly and easily download them into a book directly from your phone.You do do have some options when ordering – if you want multiples of any particular photos – you can do that. Also, if that month you want multiples of a particular book – no problem. Change your settings to print 2 or more!

To get your first Groovebook for FREE (no shipping and processing fee) use coupon code –GROOVEOFSUCCESS – Yup that is correct – a book of 100 4×6 prints FREE. Can’t beat it for sure.

And here are some photos of mine:

Okay so trying to take photos of my photos without someone holding the book open for me proved to be a bit of a challenge. And since it is a dreary, dismal day outside the colors are not nearly as vibrant as they are actually in print. The photos are perfect and exactly as I would expect them to be in the book.

I will start by saying – this is not a sponsored post. Just information I am dying to share. I am not even an affiliate of Nike.

The photo above is the Nike Fuel Band. Over the years I have tried so many pedometers – either I lose them, forget to use them, throw them through the washer – you name it. Then I bought the BodyBugg – which I will say I loved and the data produced was awesome to see and it easily tracked growth and more. However, the BodyBugg always left my arm blistered and I needed to pay for an annual contract for the online services. It is pretty useless without that contract. So once my contract expired I let it go. I did eventually by their new enhanced model but again – let it go after the contract expired. Sad… Next I went to the Fitbit. I like the Fitbit but stopped using it because my husband lost his – I gave him mine. Next I bought the ActiveLink. But it only works through Weight Watchers and I wasn’t doing Weight Watchers. So I paid for their program and paid the additional $5 per month for the ActiveLink. I used it religiously but the expense just didn’t make sense.

A few months ago I learned that Fitbit was coming out with the new Fitbit band in the spring. I have been waiting and waiting. Spring arrived and still no word from Fitbit about the grand arrival of their product. No response to emails. No newsletter updates. Nothing. Silence. Then all of a sudden they launched the FitBit with mass mailings and within minutes they were indicating the product was backordered for ten weeks. Seriously? Why even launch it if you can’t be “live” for ten minutes?

Frustrated and growing more and more impatient I started searching for other companies that may be making accelerometer wristbands. I found several and after researching each I opted to get the Nike Fuel Band. I have had it for a month and am not at all disappointed. It doesn’t have a ton of bells and whistles but it does everything I want – which isn’t much. I wanted a band that counts steps, calories and can also display time. My intent was to eliminate wearing a watch. That didn’t quite work out. The Nike Fuel Band does all those things but the display is very bright. Call me Vain but it is a little embarrassing to display the time with this bright LED display. So I still wear my watch. Shipping was very speedy – no complaints at all. The band comes in black or white. At first I thought for sure I would get white – it is actually awesome looking. But then I read reviews and a very common complaint is that the white gets grungy looking very quickly and nothing users try to use to clean it works. I bought black… The band comes with links to insert if you need it to be larger or remove them to make it smaller. I need it without the links. It is nowhere near being snug but no matter how hard I try I often (at least half the time) pinch my wrist when I try to close the clasp – and boy does that SMART! The band has some calibration called Fuel – hence the name. I don’t quite understand the Fuel but it seems to convert activity into some sort of fuel calculation. Supposedly you can compete with other band wearers with your levels of Fuel. At this point I feel that calculation is useless but maybe I will learn more about it as I use it. To charge the band or sync the data – you can either use the adapter and plug it into a USB port or plug the band directly into the USB port. On the surface that sounds great but when I plug the band directly into the USB port it presses down on the keyboard and keeps making strokes not allowing the software to open. There should be a better way to get it to work in the USB port of a laptop without impacting everything else. That is a huge frustration. Having said all that though I believe the product is still awesome and that bands in general just have a little bit of progress to make. It is water resistant – not waterproof. I don’t think any bands are waterproof yet but maybe they will get there. I know one claimed it was and it really wasn’t so they had to pull their product from the market, engineer a new model and now they say it is water resistant. The online software allows you to share your achievements directly on Facebook and/or Twitter – which I am not doing. You can set a Fuel goal but I would prefer to set a number of steps or number of calories goal – if I can do that I can’t find out where – but I don’t think so. It has an accelerometer that tracks almost all types of activity.

Now I have noted many things that could be better or aren’t quite what I would prefer. But I can tell you I am not at all dissatisfied with my purchase. It is pretty comfortable, easy to read, instant data, and not as overtly visible as things like the BodyBugg. I would have preferred white but just like a white wristwatch – it would never stay clean and I just can’t have that. Out of all the band options the Nike Fuel Band is the most attractive option. The Fitbit band is not more attractive but it will come in more colors – but they will most likely have the same cleanliness struggles.

What would I like most in an accelerator band? It needs to do everything for calories and steps. Instead of a fuel calculation I would much rather know the aerobic calories and total calories. I would also love to be able to leave it on 24/7. I don’t mind taking it of to take a shower but I spend a great deal of time swimming in pools or at beaches. In order to eliminate the possibility of me accidentally wearing it into the water – I just don’t wear it all on those days. Problem is those are the days that I am unequivocally most active and the activity does not count in my caloric expenditure at all. Very frustrating. But none of them do all of this. I may review the Fitbit band too and the Jawbone. Who knows – I may end up wearing all three to have the best of all worlds…

June 27 Tumblewalla is having a big clearance sale on their spring merchandise. You will be able to save up to 75% on the merchandise, so make sure to go take a look and see what you like. spring clearance to make way for our new fall “Rhinos, monkeys, crocs…oh my!” collection.

Tumblewalla’s Mission: to “help families smile, laugh and have a bit more play-time each day,”

Other Imporant Information: Tumblewalla donates 5% of sales to select non-profit organizations dedicated to brightening the lives and futures of children who don’t have the resources or opportunities
to play as they should.

When a person embarks on a weight loss journey they usually invest their money in many products such as a gym membership, a scale, weights, etc. But, the one thing I usually see many of my peers forgetting to purchase is a kitchen scale! One of the biggest diet sabotagers is eating what you think is the right amount of food and then finding out that in fact you may have eaten as much as double your daily allowance! I remember years ago when I followed Weight Watchers, talking about apples. While a small apple (149g) has only 78 calories, a large apple (223g) can have close to 120 calories! And just like everything in the store today being extra large, apples are no exception. When you are keeping a close eye on your daily calorie intake, being confident in the size and portion of your food is vital! The Eat Smart Precision Elite Digital Kitchen Scaleis the type of product you need to use to rely on complete accuracy!

The Eat Smart Precision Elite is the newest of Eat Smart’s products. I really like it’s sleek silver design, making it a stylish accessory to your kitchen counter. I always keep my scale on the counter, doing so allows for quick & easy access when I am cooking or baking! The Precision Elite features:

EatSmart Precision Elite Accuracy Technology,

Easy 2 button operation,

Tare Feature – subtraction the weight of any plate or container,

Backlit LCD Display, making it very easy to read,

Durable & large stainless steel platform,

4 measurement modes: grams, ounces, kilograms & pounds,

Can hold up to 15 pounds and is accurate to +/- .1oz,

3 minute auto-turnoff,

Includes 4 AAA batteries

FREE Calorie Factors Book

Eat Smart was founded in 2005 and since then they have been devote to creating innovative health care products that fit the needs of their customers and the community around them. Every product Eat Smart carries comes with their 100% Eat Smart Satisfaction Guarantee. If it does not meet your standards, return it for a replacement or a refund. The Precision Elite comes with a 2 year warranty.

Eat Smart would love to give one of my lucky readers their own Precision Elite Kitchen Scale! The giveaway is open to readers 18+, in the United States. To enter, follow the steps on the rafflecopter below!

I am always on the lookout for snacks for my family. There is nothing better than finding a new favorite cookie or cracker! I have been a fan of the Newman’s Own brand of products for many years and recently became aware of their completely separate company – Newman’s Own Organics. All of Newman’s Own Organics products have been certified organic by the Oregon Tilth. Their ingredients have been grown on farms that have not used artificial fertilizers or pesticides for three or more years! We recently had the opportunity to review quite a few of the Newman’s Own Organics products!

Newman’s Own Organics created the first fig bar made with organic figs, organic sugar, organic flour, and without hydrogenated oils! The Family Recipe Cookies comes in well known cookie varieties like Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, Ginger Snap and more!

I absolutely loved everything we have tried so far. The Family Recipe Cookies are the perfect size for little ones. The serving size is just the right amount too. I used the dried apricots to make some of my own larabars (recipe still pending) and the kids enjoyed the licorice at Monster Jam the other night. My husband’s really loved Fig Newton’s, so he was his favorite has been the Fig Newman’s!

Although all of the products are absolutely delicious, what I like the most is the fact that none of them contain trans fats, hydrogenated oils, or anything else to make you feel bad about having a little snack.

I had no idea where you could even find Newman’s Own Organics in the store! So I did a quick search and found that they are sold in my local natural food stores in my area. I even saw them in my local Whole Foods today! If you’d like to try them out for yourself, make sure to print these money saving coupons!

Newman’s Own Organics would like to give one of my readers a Prize Pack full of Newman’s Own Organics! Because these products are not found outside of the United States, this giveaway is limited to the US only and for readers 18 years of age and up. To enter, follow the steps on the Rafflecopter link below!

Welcome to the Holsted Jewelers Shopping Spree

Holsted Jewelers was founded in 1971 and has a passion for bringing jewelry of the highest quality and the finest design to its customers. Why can’t gorgeous jewelry be affordable too? Not only van you buy online but you are able to buy jewelry in convenient collections, beautifully coordinated by experts, and delivered right to your door at specially discounted prices. These collections always begin with a free piece of jewelry valued at $50 or higher…how can you beat that?

Momma Media Network has teamed up with several other bloggers to bring you this sparkling giveaway of a $200 shopping spree at HolstedJewelers.com. You can also read a Holsted Jewelers review over at The Review Wire.

Giveaway

1 Winner will receive a $200 Shopping Spree at HolstedJewelers.com. See form for Entry Details. Open to U.S. You must be 18 years old to enter to win. Ends 7.2.13

Disclaimer: An email address is required to enter. The winner will be chosen randomly through Giveaway Tools and contacted via email. A reply to the winning email is required within 48 hours before a new winner is chosen. One person entering per household please. U.S. only. This giveaway ends at 11:59 PM EST on July 2, 2013.

Momma Media Network was not provided with product for this review and is not responsible for the shipment of prizes.

“This sprightly fairytale reworking is full of beans, smartly written and packs plenty of fun.”

– Linda Barnard, Associated Press

Released today 06/18! Own “Jack the Giant Slayer” on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and Digital Download.

Jack the Giant Slayer takes a legendary tale and modernizes it for today’s audiences. This is a movie we missed while it was in theaters – I know, hard to believe we missed any movies!

Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend— and gets the chance to become a legend himself.

I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. I only recommend products or services I use personally and/or I believe would be helpful for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” The opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own. Your experience with the product(s) or service(s) may differ from mine.

Driving into the Florida Keys is always a fantastic change of pace, ambiance and feel. It is immediate beauty, harmony and relax all at once. There is no shortage of activities for all age ranges. It is here as well where you can come swim with the dolphins. Read our post on that here. Before summer really arrives…although it already feels as if it did, we ventured out for a Bahia Honda State Park visit.

This park has been selected more than once as the National Gold Medal Winner. We were very curious. Located at 36850 Overseas Highway in big Pine Key, it is 12 miles South of Marathon. The park is actually the result of a pre-historic coral reef. With the drop of sea levels several thousand years ago, the reef was exposed and formed an island to be our park. One day is not enough to e joy all what the park has to offer which explained so many RVs and tents! There are also cabins for those if us not ready for a full fledged camping adventure. Kayaking, bicycling, fishing, snorkeling, are activities to take advantage of besides swimming and beach going. Important to note is that the park is home to great awaiting adventures and to the last remaining strand of threatened Silver Palms, as well as a rare small flowered lily thorn. Without doing half of the activities offered by this natural wonder it an amazing visit for all. You won’t regret coming here. It is just so wonderful to be able to be transported in such a quick and easy way (and drive!). Right on the Beach your will find huts with BBQ and tables, but set in such a way that there is an unobstructed view to enjoy to your hearts content the waves, the sea breeze and the views. I love how we felt we were the only ones there, and when we entered the park we were told we were to full capacity!

For more information call 305 872 2353
This is not a sponsored post, our friends challenged us to describe this beautiful place in 200 words or less and this is the result 🙂